UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

Objective: To reduce the mortality and incidence burden, as well as to promote the efficient use of federal resources to prioritize screening services for the women most in need, the National Breast & Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) instituted a science-based program policy to focus recruitment on women who were never or rarely screened. These include women who have never had a Pap test or had not had a Pap test within the past five years. With this significant change in program policy, CDC-funded BCCEDP programs had to re-think program outreach activities to target their recruitment towards this priority population. This also involved defining and identifying the never/rarely screened population for the respective programs.

Methods: In South Carolina, the SC-BCCEDP, known as the Best Chance Network, identified and developed usual and non-traditional partnerships. Additionally, program management in the SC-BCCEDP, established new criteria to prioritize recruitment efforts. These criteria were incorporated into focus areas for outreach and recruitment for staff and program contracts. Tracking activities and documenting progress made were essential to evaluating the success of recruitment outcomes.

Results: The new strategies resulted in increasing the number of never/rarely screened women for both types of partnerships. These were also reflected in the Minimum Data Elements, the evaluative dataset for the NBCCEDP. South Carolina met its goal for never/rarely screened and continues to do so. Also, the presentation will describe the types of partnerships and how the partnerships were developed as well as the outcomes of these partnerships. In addition, participants will also learn about the strategies used to plan and prioritize recruitment for success.